Still An Outsider, 20 Months In

Day 631 - Welcome to this blog. I hope you enjoy reading it and I encourage you to respond. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Adam, I'm currently an undergraduate student at a local NW university, and I am an East Coaster, through and through. I spent my entire life (up until 631 days ago) on the outskirts of the New York City suburbs and spent a life of time in the City itself. Disgusted with life in the Northeast and fed up with the spoiled trust fund kids I went to high school with (a small prep school where I was largely an outsider among my peers, because I'm not a rich kid and I didn't get a Mercedes for my 16th birthday ), I chose to uproot and move across the country to continue my education as well as find a new start for myself. I'm not a class warrior and I know that I'm not exactly underprivileged, but I couldn't stand the people I was surrounded by so I made the simple and logical decision to go somewhere else. That was the summer of 2006.

Not a day goes by when I don't count my blessings for making one of the best choices I will ever face. I've settled in as a student over two academic years and have gotten a basic feel for things. Life here is different and wonderful. It also takes some adjustment. The best part, however, is that I get to see things in ways that locals would largely overlook. That is the main subject of this blog - an underrepresented point of view on the people, places, things, and ideas that exist west of the Cascades.

I don't want to complain or rant constantly - too many people can do that and not actually think about what they're saying. Instead, I hope to provide a good idea or two, here and there. Of course I have my complains, and I'll probably write about them, but without some thoughtfulness behind them, why would anyone care to read about it?

With that, I'll wrap up the inaugural piece for this blog. Stay tuned.

Enjoy,
Adam